Mattie possesses "ultimate power" obtained from the Gathering of the Five ceremony including flight, superhuman strength (able to lift up to 10 tons), speed, reflexes, stamina and agility. Mattie absorbed the combined original abilities of the other Spider-Women including their abilities to sprout psionic spider-legs from her back, generation of psionic webbing and bioelectric "venom blasts", and moderate telepathy. The degree to which she still has retained these siphoned powers is unknown. She was able to shape the appearance of her spider-legs using her mind.

"Mattie" Franklin was a troubled youth who grew up with her father after her mother died when she was young. She was granted her powers when, after overhearing a phone call between her father and Norman Osborn about the Gathering of the Five, she took her father's place during the Gathering and was endowed with the awesome powers that Norman Osborn had wanted for himself. During one of Spider-Man's temporary retirements, she wore a padded version of his costume and substituted for him. After Spider-Man's return, she assumed the identity of Spider-Woman. Eventually Charlotte Witter, a villain also going by the name of Spider-Woman, attacked her and stole her powers. Powerless, Mattie continued to fight Witter and managed not only to reabsorb her own powers, but also to absorb the powers of both previous Spider-Women (which Witter had also stolen) and Witter's own powers.

With the blessings of Jessica Drew and Julia Carpenter, the first Spider-Women, she resumed the Spider-Woman mantle. Franklin eventually settled with her "Aunt" Marla Madison, and "Uncle" J. Jonah Jameson, both close friends with her father, and frequently varied the appearance of her costume. As Spider-Woman, she battled Flesh and Bones, Shadrac, the Shadowcaster, aliens looking to conquer Earth, the psychic projections of Brian Leighton (creating an amalgam of the Rhino, Doctor Octopus, Venom), Miss Itch and Mr. Scratch, and a werewolf nun.

Mattie's father died, making her living arrangement with the Jamesons more permanent, as they became her foster parents. She was later seduced into a dark world of illegal drugs by boyfriend Denny Haynes, who used Mattie's own flesh as a source for a superhuman power-granting drug called MGH (Mutant Growth Hormone), before being rescued by Jessica Drew and Jessica Jones. Jessica Drew resumed her role as Spider-Woman, while Mattie retired from superheroics, attending a support group with other young former superheroes.